Never Play Dead
by Wolf77
Summary: Alex decides that living with the Pleasures isn't working anymore. He fakes his own death and escapes back to London under the alias, Felix Wolff. SCORPIA finds him but doesn't realize he's Alex Rider. Instead, they try to recruit him but an unforseen problem arises by the name of Mitch Rapp.


Chapter 1: The Escape  
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Alex Rider, nor will I ever (except in my dreams). Also, I stole some ideas from the fanfic author Starry Bright Light's story Starting Anew so you should all go read that as well.

Alex looks around him. He is in a holding cell, but this is hardly new to him. He recognizes it but from where he cannot say. Guards come it and he soon finds himself strapped to a chair looking at Razim. Julius, his look-alike, appears holding a button. Alex does not need to look down to realize that he has wires stuck onto him. Razim had already explained his idea of trying to make a pain-o-meter.

Razim points at a screen. On it, he can see Jack. With surprise he realizes that she has escaped her holding cell. She walks around a bend and knocks out a guard. All Alex can feel is pride. Then, his stomach drops. There had only been one person guarding the land rover. Suddenly he knew exactly how this was going to end. Julius looked at him with a smirk.

"This button," he explains, "will set off a bomb in the car that your friend just stole." This statement confirms Alex's suspicions. "Go on Alex," Julius prompts. "Beg me not to do it, not that it will do anything."

"Julius, please!" Alex begs. "She's all I have! I'll do anything!"

"We are far past that Alex," Razim chimes in, but Alex doesn't here him. He watches as Jack drives away, silently pleading with her to have realized that her escape was too easy and get out of the car.

"Julius! Don't. Please!" Alex cries, unable to stop tears from running down his face.

"Ooo. . . Too late." Julius says as he presses the button. "Sorry Alex," but his tone wasn't sorry at all.

"NOOOO! JACK!" Alex screams as he watches the car blow up. There is no way that anyone could have survived that. Alex screams again. This time he says nothing comprehensible. It is just a scream of grief and rage. The last person, the only person, who had ever cared about is well being was gone. His grief overcomes him and his world fades to black. The next image that comes is one of Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones.

"Alex. . ." they said. "Alex. . ."

"No please!" he groaned. "She's gone! She shouldn't have been there! It's all my fault!"

"Alex. . . Alex. . ." Somebody was shaking him.

Alex woke up with a start and bolted upright, narrowly missing Sabina as he lashed out. She backed off as he came to his senses, disturbed by how close he had come to hitting her.  
"Sabina!" He exclaimed. "Oh my gosh! Did I hit you? I am so sorry!" That does it, he thought. I have to leave, and soon. I am too much of a danger to people! Plus, there is always the chance that SCORPIA could find me. I know they're looking.

"It's okay Alex. You didn't get me. Umm. . . Is there a reason that you were yelling Jack in your sleep?" Alex gulped, he hadn't wanted her to know about the nightmares that had plagued him since he had come to live with her family, the Pleasures.

"It was nothing," he said, attempting to brush it off. "Just a bad dream. You can go back to bed." While it didn't look like she believed him, she dropped the subject and left the room.

Alex sighed. He was getting less and less sleep. He laid down and closed his eyes again but the image of the car blowing up came back immediately and he sat up again. Looking at the clock he realized that it was only 3:30 am. He seriously doubted that he'd be able to go to sleep again.

Instead, Alex planned his escape. He had been working a steady job at some random Walmart just for something to do that would get his mind off everything that he had gone through with MI6. He should have enough money to get out of the country. He already had a false identity waiting for him, along with forged documents to go with it. All he needed was a decent disguise and an airplane ticket.

Alex frowned as another thought occurred to him. Even with a false identity and a clever disguise, MI6 would still be looking for him. So would SCORPIA and both organizations were well versed in seeing through disguises. If he really wanted to get people off his back, he would have to find a way to make them stop looking for him. This was a more challenging problem. His expression cleared as he figured out a way to fix it. He just had to somehow fake his death.

Alex jumped out of bed and got onto his laptop. With a google search and some mild hacking to get onto a site, Alex had a legit death certificate. With just a little more uncomplicated hacking, he had his name on it. The death certificate said he died in a car crash. He placed the date two days from now, giving him time to get far enough away that the Pleasures would assume it to be true. Now all he had to do was anonymously get it to MI6 who would definitely pass it on to SCORPIA, probably unwittingly. He would mail it to them in a couple of days.

The next day, Alex and Sabina walked to school together. Alex was careful to do nothing out of the ordinary. He couldn't have something ruining his plans now. As usual, he went to a few classes. He sat in the same seat and he mentally cringed at the habit. Any habit was dangerous for a spy. He suffered through classes that he didn't understand because he had been absent most of the year going on missions. Then, at lunchtime, he such off on his own. Nobody missed him because he usually ate off on his own anyway, to avoid stares from kids and teachers. Everybody thought he was one of the "bad kids" that are in every grade because of the extended periods that he was gone because of missions. The school counselor had even tried to talk to him once. He had asked if he had abusive parents after noticing some minor cuts and bruises courtesy of SCORPIA.

Today however, instead of sneaking off to somewhere quiet, he left the school premises. It wasn't hard to avoid the cameras thanks to his training as a secret agent. By the time school got out, he would be well on his way out of the country. He would also no longer be known as Alex Rider but instead by the name Felix Woff. Soon he would no longer be almost 16, but he would be almost 19.

He walked back to the Pleasure's house, knowing that nobody would be home. As he walked, he wondered how they would react to finding him missing, hearing days later that he had been "killed" in a car accident. When he gets to the house, he changes into his disguise. With the help of some gadgets courtesy of Smithers, he had made himself shoes that make him about two inches taller without outwardly looking as if they changed his hight. He had also bought a pair of "glasses" that didn't actually have a prescription lens. In the place of a normal lens, there was just glass. Also, Alex changes his hair color to a dark, chocolate brown.

Having finished up, he grabbed his pre-packed bags, adding in a few extra supplies including what was left of the hair dye for touch ups. Then he erased any evidence that he was ever there. He thanked his lucky stars that he had had a haircut recently. Making sure had his forged documents, Alex made his way to the airport. He made it through customs with no problems and no suspicious looks.

As he got onto the airplane, he glanced back. He shook is head to clear his thoughts and reminded himself that he was now officially Felix Wolff, the German immigrant. No longer would he be chased by MI6 or SCORPIA. He was finally free!


End file.
